Getting the Idea
So, I was playing some Monster Hunter the other day, and then switched over to Minecraft. Got me thinking, wouldn’t it be cool to run around as one of those monsters? Bazelgeuse came to mind – you know, the big bomber wyvern. Figured I’d give making a skin for it a shot.
Finding Pictures and Starting Off
First thing, I needed pictures. Jumped online and searched for Bazelgeuse images from different angles. Needed to see the front, back, sides, especially those weird explosive scales under its neck and belly. The colors are mostly grey and silver, with that distinct orange-red glow.
I decided to use one of those online Minecraft skin editors. They’re pretty straightforward, you just paint pixels directly onto the model. Loaded up the default Steve or Alex template and just started painting over it.
Started with the main body. Laid down a base coat of greyish silver all over the torso, arms, legs, and head. Tried to vary the grey a bit, make it look kinda rocky or metallic, not just flat.
Working on the Details – The Tricky Part
Okay, base color down. Now for the hard stuff.
- The Scales: Bazelgeuse has these big, overlapping scales, especially on its back and neck. Making that look right with just pixels is tough. I messed around with darker and lighter grey pixels to give it some texture, trying to make it look chunky. Took a few tries to get something that looked okay-ish.
- The Glow: This is the main thing for Bazelgeuse, right? Those glowing orange/red parts that look like they’re about to explode. I picked a bright orange and a reddish color. Carefully started putting these pixels on the neck area, under the belly, and a bit on the underside of the arms to suggest the wings. Getting the placement right so it looked like part of the skin, not just random dots, was fiddly.
- The Head: Tried to get that aggressive look. Used some dark pixels for the eyes and tried to shape the jawline a bit using shading. Simple stuff, you can’t do much detail on a Minecraft head.
- Simulating Wings: Minecraft skins don’t really have wings. So, I painted a pattern on the back and the back of the arms using the wing colors and textures from my reference pics. It’s a compromise, but better than nothing.
Checking and Fixing
Painting pixel by pixel is one thing, seeing it on the actual model is another. The editor usually has a 3D preview. I kept spinning the model around, checking how the parts lined up. Some areas looked weird, like the colors didn’t blend well between the arm and the torso, or the glowing parts looked flat.
Spent a good while tweaking things. Changed some shades of grey, moved the glowing pixels around a bit, adjusted the pattern on the back. It’s a lot of back-and-forth. You try something, look at it, doesn’t work, erase, try again. Pretty standard stuff when making a skin.
Final Look
After a bunch of adjustments, I got it to a point where I was pretty happy. Uploaded the skin file and jumped into Minecraft to see how it looked in the actual game. Running around, seeing it from different angles… yeah, it felt like Bazelgeuse, kinda. It’s blocky, obviously, but the colours and the key features like the glow were there.
It wasn’t perfect, getting that monster shape onto a human model is always weird, but it captured the essence, I think. Was a fun little project, took an afternoon. Happy with how my bomber wyvern turned out in block form.
